Visiting a Town With Nice Shops, Full Restaurants and Massive New Infrastructure
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- Опубліковано 26 кві 2024
- This week I visited Liege in #belgium to see how the #qualityoflife compares to that of the UK. Despite the city being shabby in places and there being many empty shops I found #liege to be a vibrant city with many nice shops and many restaurants, bars and cafes which seemed to be extremely busy. A new tram line is being built and the city has an outstanding station as well as several nice parks.
My overall impression is that Liege is a city which is improving quickly and where plenty of people seem to be able to afford to eat and drink out.
This is almost certainly because, since rents and property prices are so much lower in Belgium people have more disposable income.
The big difference I noticed was the absence of litter.
Michael, you hit the nail on the head when you more or less said it's all about disposable income. House prices, mortgage costs, rents, travel costs all much higher in the UK leaving very little money for most of the British population to spend on themselves. I've just celebrated the 14th anniversary of my arrival in Romania, a decision I made after working out that, even back in 2009, I'd struggle to survive on the State Pension plus a small private pension which I was due to start receiving in 2011. Sold my house in Oxfordshire, paid off the remaining £50k mortgage and bought a house with 1000m² of land for £29k cash. Equivalent of council tax is £75 per annum, Electricity costs around £26 per month, bottled gas for the cooker works out at around £3 per month and I don't have any water rates to pay as I have a well in the garden with an electric pump in the cellar. The village is not on mains drainage but to have the septic tanks pumped out by the local council approximately every five years only costs £60. Train travel to Sibiu, which I do twice each month, costs a little under £5 return (92kms each way). If I stay overnight in Sibiu when meeting up with friends, I've never paid more than £35 for a hotel bed and breakfast. Yes, my life in the EU, especially in Romania, is far better quality than if I was in the UK.
Well done Laurie 😊
What struck me is the lack of litter, graffiti etc, a good sign of pride and responsibility within a community, looks very good. Thanks for video Michael.
Liege indeed has enjoyed some "levelling up", as Michael put it. I remember it from the late 80's when I lived in Maastricht, only 27 km away. The contrast between the 2 cities was stark. Maastricht, a quite fancy and chique city, and Liege was a quite rundown dilapetated city that had seen decline since the end of the industrial boom and the mines and steel mills closed. The city was bankrupt back then. Garbage wasn't collected and in some parts you would better not go for a stroll late at night.
@@vullings1968 yes I did notice signs from the industrial period, coming through nicely now though.
Lack of rubbish stuck out like a sore thumb.
I visited Liege as a young musician in the early sixties. The abiding memory of Belgian towns (to a young northern lad, born towards the end of the war) was the smell of coffee. For the record, I now love coffee. Your analysis reveals the stark difference: we see housing and utilities as capital assets for the extraction of profit; whereas European countries, in general, see them as essential services...an essential need for all. Thanks for your good work, yet again.
Europe, the mainland, has a far different relationship with home ownership and rentals than the UK
@@keithparker1346 Indeed. And a much healthier one imo.
Over many years I have experienced life in Berlin, Hameln, Moenchengladbach, Dusseldorf and Amsterdam. In every case I've found the the standard of living much above anywhere I have visited in Britain. No, the Europeans are not "worse off" than we are!
You wore the green? JHQ Rheindahlen, methinks.
Being a regular visitor to Belgium I can tell my fellow Brits that, in most areas of life, the Belgians have it ten times better than us.
I promise this is true.
Good afternoon Micheal the very first thing to notice is how CLEAN the areas are.
I have not visited European towns & cities as often as i did pre Brexit, but when I do now, you can't help but be staggered by the investments in infrastructure & speed with which roads, tunnels, bridges are built & towns invested in. The UK can't even complete a railway line past Birmingham heading north or another tunnel under the Thames at Gravesend.
I lived in Belgium for two years. I worked for NATO in Brussels. I always felt at home there, and I really liked the Belgium people. I now live in Spain, I went for the sun. The Spanish people are great also.
Despite the negatives we see in European cities and towns it's obvious the UK has fallen so far behind our neighbours, not just the built environment but as a society as a whole - and our decline continues unabated. Thank you for making this video, despite it being a sad reflection on this immiserated Disunited Kingdom..
Well said, that’s exactly how I feel about the UK. It’s criminal what our dinosaur politicians have done to our country.
I moved to Belgium in 1994 from England, no regrets. Leige is a very old industrial city and over the years it is getting better. I live in the flemish party of Belgium in a small village called Rijkhoven, 15 minutes from liege, again very different and very beautiful. 😊 leuven is a university city and also houses the university hospital. That square is great in the summer, with live music
I have lived in France for 20 years now. It surprised me how many people in the comments pointed out how clean and tidy everything was. I didn't notice that, as for me this is just normal. Everywhere around me is litter and graffiti free.
Perhaps the UK has deteriorated more than I thought in the 2 decades since I left.
It’s worse than you imagine, especially when you visit from Luxembourg.
An interesting video, Michael. I was in Belgium (Brussels & Antwerp) three weeks ago. I stayed near Gare du Midi in Brussels which is a slightly run down area. There are clearly a lot of infrastructure projects going on around the capital. Trams are being developed unlike London. But this was always considered 'working class' transport here- just read Roy Porter. I read the average Belgian enjoys around 20% higher living standard than us. Brussels is indubitably the cheapest western European capital regarding property prices. True transport is also cheaper. For the same distance I pay a £32 return train fare for here, I paid £17 in Belgium. Incidentally, the trains were not packed with stressed people shouting on their phones among the filth and decay of, for example, Southern Trains. The one down side were food and general commodity prices. This has obviously been impacted by Brexit which caused exchange rates to plummet by an unprecedented 9% within days of that silly vote. No longer can Brits hope to bring back a car full of cheap beer, wine, cheese etc. Those days are (for the foreseeable future) gone. We brought this on ourselves.
For EU People, this is a random normal city
Belgium= france = germany=spain = netherlands=italy=hungary=austria..........
Actually, Liège was long considered a "bad" town, best to avoid with the richer towns of Maastricht (27 km) and Aachen (35 km) as nearby alternatives
Very interesting video, Michael. I've never been to Liege, but it looks very nice. What I've noticed when I've travelled in Europe is that most cities have the shopping malls shown here, with international brands. They also seem to have vibrant independent shops with good quality products. Our shopping malls and city centres appear dull and soulless in comparison. Some places, Norwich and Brighton for example, have nice shopping areas. The pubs, bars and restaurants seem nicer abroad, and drunkenness doesn't seem nearly as widespread as in the UK. One other major difference - no Wetherspoon's in Belgium!😂
lovely to see a place being kept so clean,nice 1 Michael
That stands out like a sore thumb.
The UK higher wages, are inflated by higher inequality. The money is spread less evenly. The billionaires here, pull the average up, but the average person earns less, than the average in belgium.
UK has issues due to most income goes on mortgages or ridiculously high rents...Public transport in UK is expensive compared to Europe ...Excellent filming Michael and I enjoyed 👏🏻.Belgium is small but wonderful 🙂
I live in Dublin michael and I find ur channel very interesting I love seeing other countries and the sights its a shame people in g b were conned out of the eu keep up your vidios
Clean, hardly any graffiti, no beggars or strange people, few barricaded shops, people using shops and restaurants - i could see myself living there. As a German, there would be no problem for me to do so at all.
Long live EUrope - nobody needs to make EUrope great again, it is great 🤣🤣😉
Yeah I mean here in the UK no one uses restaurants 🤣
@@keithparker1346 I think they're called Food Kitchens no?? They have Food Banks too, previously known as 'Takeaways'!!
@@JMHM3170 no there's plenty of restaurants
@jahonain they can. The EU is not some utopia
@jahonain debatable
Belgians are "born with a brick in the stomach". The saying "een baksteen in de maag hebben / avoir une brique dans le ventre" is often used in a humorous way, but it also reflects the deep-seated desire of many Belgians to own their own home. The percentage of homeowners here is around 72.5%.
How sad that you missed (most of) Leuven! It is a charming little city with a rich history and vibrant culture and lots of students. You should’ve enjoyed a beer at the Oude Markt (Old Market Square). The Oude Markt is Leuven's famous student square, and it's lined with bars and cafes. It's a great place to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy a Belgian beer.
❤ from Belgium, EU.
People in the UK are paying too much money renting and utility bills are ridiculous. That's why pubs,restaurants,shops and town centres in the UK are closing.
James Cleverly described Stockton-on-Tees as ‘shit-hole’. He's right.!
They are building a massive park for the drug addicts and drunks. My rates are paying for this vanity project.
It would be better spent on bus services and repairing infrastructure,like schools.
I see multiple posts but what Michael is not telling you is that mass immigration is pouring in making this issue 100 times worse. Belgium benefits from being EU city. Michael does not tell you this. He alao is not telling you why after EU membership most of our industries got extracted by the FrancoGermzn self interest machime. How uk money helped ford move operations to Poland. None of this he talks about. I dare znyone on here to explain how you can be propolerous with 26 deficits with EU members. Michael ignores this. How our international trade is now expanding snd breaking records. Michael ignores this. Since leaving we have moved up the exporting league table. However inept tory and labour governments are being exposed as well as the over indulged public sector. Michael should go to Spain and Portugal. He will find wages are less than the minimum wage there. I know because I talk to people most weeks from there.
Dear Michael
Every week I listen with admiration to your assessment of the situation in the UK.
I am old, 72 years old, and live in Leuven.
Leuven has the oldest Catholic university in Europe. There are 90,000 inhabitants in Leuven and approximately 80,000 students. Many continue to live in Leuven after their studies. This makes Leuven the intellectual center of Belgium. Leuven is a beautiful city to live in, but extremely expensive.
You have only seen a small part of Leuven, but you will definitely come back again.
It was where Irish Catholics went to study for the priesthood, when the religious persecution of Catholics was enforced at home.
Thank you Jeff. I hope so 😊
@@genghisthegreat2034 also English catholics. Those also had a pied a Terre near Brugges. Check 'Engelse zusters klooster Brugge'
@@genghisthegreat2034 Indeed. There is still an Irish College. Leuven got plenty of religious communities, monasteries and an Abbey. A century ago it must have been like little Rome with priests, monks and nuns everywhere.
I couldn't see any litter on the streets, is it either that the Belgiums don't "just drop it on the floor " or they have enough money to employ people to clear up? I find it shaming to see our litter strewn streets.
Moreover, one of the litter factors in the UK: the wind, is also present in Belgium. They also have more efficient bins, so the wind does not blow the rubbish away.
As a Belgian, I can tell you we still have a litter problemin this country, mainly along the motorways. The big cities have a lot of littering inhabitants, but also large streetsweeping crews. It's getting better, but we are not at the level of Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia. I have been in Scotland and didn't see much litter there.
@@thomasvan7738 I agree, too many people toss litter everywhere. It might be a minority but they spoil the place for everybody.
If you litter, you risk a fine.
I know the O A P in Ireland live better than the OAP in UK.
My pension is 300 euro ( including living alone allowance) a week plus 30 euro a month for energy.
Free tV license free nationwide travel Free Doc Free medicine
If I passed a means test I would also get free phone and 32 euro a week for 26 weeks for gas oil electricity.
Christmas bonus is a double week pension.
Life expectancy in Republic is 2 years longer than N Ireland.
Property tax on my house is 500 euro a year. Water is free. But I do pay about 100 euro a year rubbish collection based on weight.
Wow,,, 😲
@@amcc5887
The free phone is there is there so they can call their children if anything is required.
Example, my mother used to phone me saying the TV won't work.
I go down and discover someone up plugged it. Also children can check up on them make sure they are OK. Especially in bad weather.
32 euro a week towards heating is cheap money.
What's the cost of a few weeks stay in hospital if they get hypothermia?
Beautiful, thank you 🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷
The only closed shop in that pretty mall was the British shop Next. Belgium has better food than France and the range of goods is second to none. Every village has their own excellent beer, the fresh chocolate is to die for. They are the best car workers in Europe and they are good workers in general, earn well.
Belgium is the greyest and most dill of all EU countries, they have the most rain and the least sun in Europe but the culture and history is fantastic and people are kind and helpful, sociable.
But we got our country back ,as one idiot told me last week, what country I said look around at the state we qre in ,nothing works here.
Perhaps nothing works, but at least there's sovereign tea to drink. 😅😆
Nice, I bet their waterways are clean too
Not yet but improving
Do Belgians Live Better Than Brits? They certainly do! Lovely shopping centres, even the empty shops look better than ours. I noticed 2 street cleaners within a short distance of each other. I don't know when I last saw a street cleaner here. Interesting that people can go out for meals and afford to travel etc. very interesting. Thank you so much for going to so much trouble to let us see how things are.
In my town 20 miniuts north of London, our street cleaner is white. Unlike the two in the video who are black. Maybe blacks just get better opportunities for advancement in the UK.
@@anthonyferris8912 Or none at all.
You won't find many betting shops and pound stores in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany etc. If you were to see those, you'd know a town is in trouble.
I don't think betting shops even exist in the Netherlands, never saw one in over a decade living there. I suspect that they are illegal. Saw one in a shitty part of Brussels though.
Everything is so clean
Michael
You should come out to Luxembourg. It makes UK, even central London, look third World. It is very multicultural and the residents live happily side by side. There are still a small minority of 'less well educated' folks who like to blame foreigners that work here for their own poverty due to lack of education.
It's not really that multicultural though unless you think the French are vastly different from the Germans...hardly any immigrant is from outside Europe
Our first pet pig came from the Farmer's Market in Liege. "Trust me, it's going to stay that small" was what the seller claimed. He lied. We loved "Roots" never-the-less, even when he started to eat the insulation from the walls. The EU is awesome, I love shopping in our neighboring countries without the need to exchange cash or having to bring any documentation.
Roots ❤❤❤❤
I live in a Northern City in the UK and its a complete shithole in comparison to this. Wow have we been let down.
Try Norwich , it's a fantastic city . Try Harrogate or Cambridge or many other places in the U.K. Manchester is developing beyond belief and Liverpool is a great place . The unemployment rate is low in these places , about half of that of Liege . By the way, you didn't mention the city you live in . I believe that a place is only as good or bad as those that live there .
@johngaskell1467 Parts of Cambridge are beautiful of course but some areas are suffering with shops closed or streets full of charity shops with little else. A lot of property is owned by the University & house prices are very high. Bus service is poor, congestion bad. Shame there are no trams.
North East England is an utter dump
I'm a Brit living 10 miles north of Liege. One thing that the locals will tell you is that Flemings (like the Dutch) spend their money to own things, whereas Walloons (like the French) spend their money on their lifestyle. The buildings are shabby on the outside, but the people inside are having a great time! A gross simplification, but nevertheless some insight?!
Being Dutch indeed from the hinted area this is plausible to a large extend. Also the facades are NOT shabby but rather unappealing , true , but you wouldnot believe how ultra modern many houses inside are , not all but a greaaat many😀
@@geertstroy I find this true in much of France and Spain, too. On the outside things can look as shabby as hell. But on the inside they're often really nice.
I've lived in Belgium for over 8 years and this stereotype isn't true... I know the Walloons like to trash the Flemish, but just have a look at the restaurants, bars and cafes in Flemish cities as Leuven, Antwerp, Ghent, Mechelen,... they are packed aswel. Flemish people enjoy life just as much as Walloons do (and better maintain their cities and buildings). Yes, these 2 things can be combined :)
Liège, or Luik, as we call it in the Netherlands, is in Wallonia, the French speaking part Belgium.
Wallonia is to Belgium what the North of England is compared to London and the South East.
Most of its industry was coal and steel, which is all gone, so it needed some levelling up.
It looks as if that actually happened. I remember Luik as much poorer and more run down than it looks now.
It's one of those regions that have received some help from the EU.
It looks a lot better than it did 30 years ago.
Hi Michael - thanks a lot for your this video. Once you see the beauty of Liege (great city!) you have truly understood the soul of our country. I'll be glad to point out other well-hiddren places worth visiting or even be your guide some day. What isn't apparent from your video is the level of health care and education in Belgium. We pay high taxes, but get back so much in return.
Absolutely. We (Belgians) have free education, everyone can become doctor, engineer ..... and our social security is the best in the whole world. And indeed we pay high taxes but the return is also extremly high.
Thanks very much @dvdabeele 😊
I agree. I think I pay more than 50% tax on my wages but we get very much back in return. Nevertheless many people tend to complain here. I guess that they don’t know how lucky they are. Groetjes from Leuven.
Just a shame he doesn't point out the beauty of Britain instead of running it down every chance he gets.
@@JeffCelen I sincerely hope that you open a few British eyes with this comment, Jeff. For much of the last 40 years British people haven't realised that tax is a price of civilisation. The irony is that now the British pay pretty high levels of tax for national debt (interest) rather than the services and wellbeing to which you refer in Belgium (and many other European countries, including the one where I live).
Another great video, Michael. And yet another European city with spotless streets. A lack of litter speaks volumes about a place and the mindset of the people who live there.
@Letsthinkaboutit-mb7nn But worth watching eh???
I lived in Antwerp for a construction project I was invovled in and we didn't need to set any alarms as we were woken every morning by the street cleaners who came round at 06:30 picking up rubbish, emptying waste bins and hosing down the centre streets. Nice city, plenty of cultural variety and tons of beer.
Same sort of thing happens here in rural Portugal. It's a bit strange at first to get woken up by some middle aged guy brushing and vacuuming the street outside your front door every morning.
Interesting video Michael. I left the UK after the 2016 vote came in. In the intervening years I have lived in the EU. Where I live there is no anti-social behaviour, drunks in the streets, no violent crime and the cost of living is far more manageable than it was in the UK. Next time you make an EU visit, you could do worse than come to my neck of the woods. It would make for a very interesting comparison video.
You did the right thing to move to Europe.
Vive la Belgique!
Lang leve Belgie!
Keep up your fine work, Mr Lambert! 🎉😊
Even if the Koninkrijk België is more divided than the UK in regional aspects and may no longer exist in 20years it is still a very nice part of the world..
@@uweinhamburgAnd I thought only brexiteers believed in the collapsing of "Brussels", Uwe! 😅😉
Great video Michael, very interesting. Reminds me of Dublin ❤
why is Britain so grotty, yet so damned expensive? (By comparison, obvs)
Elite profits and the raping of business like Thames Water.
In one word: greed.
You've already connected the right dots, you just need to come up with the conclusion. It's "grotty" (in places) because it's expensive - all of the money that's made from things because so expensive is paid to disproportionately wealthy people who have rigged the system to make them passive income as landlords or as corporations manufacturing a monopoly on a product or service and being able to charge whatever they want.
None of that money is invested back into British society or seen by the average person in improving their streets. I think people would be happy to pay the prices they're currently paying for things like council services, transport, housing, IF it meant those things were of better quality. But they aren't.
It is the people living there. No pride in their environment.
Privatisation and austerity would be major players.
I used to live in liege , the service and good food is renowned !
(Cafe liegeois ) the best waiters ive ever come across !
Michael..
My
and I moved to France 7 years ago following retirement and have been following you from the start. It is the small things that make life better in Europe... services, manners, pride in the community, national identity.
Keep up the good work and if you wish to do a film regarding the day to day comparision of life in France to the UK, get in touch
James Harris
Thank you James 😊
If you are impressed by Liège (considered to be a poor and ugly city in Belgium), you'll be blown away by the cities in (much wealthier and better maintained) Flanders: Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges,.... and Leuven :) I've lived in Belgium for over 8 years and the Flemish cities are just world class!
Thanks Michael, have a great weekend.
Liege, or Luik as we like to call it in Dutch, is a pretty good city to compare many English cities with. Because indeed the place had some troubles and doenst really have the best reputation sadly. Mainly because of its industrial past and subsequent unemployment when many of these industries were moved oversees to cheaper countries just like in many cities across the Channel. Another interesting city in that regard would be Charleroi. But yeah Belgium is doing really well I suppose, on par with The Netherlands and Germany more or less, so things shoud be improving. And yes, the train station is designed by the world famous architect Santiago Calatrava, that must have been expensive...
The Netherlands is better off compared to Belgium. Germany is much bigger and therefore more complicated. Problematic areas in Germany are in the former East although cities like Leipzig and Dresden do very well. The most problematic in the West is the "Ruhrgebiet" and has lots of similarities with Liege in Belgium and the Midlands in the UK. All former coal mining areas but still not as bad as the UK.
@@qeitkas594 I visited the Zollverein a couple of weeks ago in Essen. Very impressive and really cool that they preserve their industrial heritage like that. Didnt like the city though, nothing wrong with it, just very bland.
My wife just said to me that 'He sounds just like you' - Yes, I've been saying much the same things for the past seven years or more, which was when we moved to western France. I like the way here that all communes (roughly a village or parish in the UK) have complete control over how it's money is spent and with complete transparency - none of those 'County Councils' who seemed to gobble up money and spend it God knows where.
Same in Spain where I live, town hall is for the residents of the community.
Likewise in Portugal with its municipalities. Super self-sufficient. My municipality is 4800 or so people over 5 villages in the middle of nowhere in rural Portugal. Works great. Water and sewage treatment is owned by the municipality. We've had high speed Internet with fibre to the home for nearly a decade. No chance of that in an equivalent community in the UK.
Local involvement in democracy is massive. And the town hall is very responsive to the public.
I would be weird to go back to the UK now where things just don't work for people in quite the same way or with quite the level of effectiveness. At least where I live.
to be fair to those county councils, most money comes from the central government, with little freedom to raise their proper finances, and with more and more responsibilities dumped on them by that same central government. It doesn't absolve them from every blame, but you can't deny the role central government plays even in local government.
@@barvdw 'Tis true. Central government has slashed local government funding to such an extent that "local democracy" in England, at least, is to all intents and purposes non-existent. If your local county council has no money whatsoever (because its budget has been more than halved) then, quite frankly, it doesn't matter which way you vote. And nobody can be held accountable locally for funding decisions that are entirely beyond their control.
Though the process began much earlier in the 1980s, local government in England was, in effect, abolished since 2010. By a political party that enjoys overwhelming support in England, ironically.
The other irony is that the services upon which most people depend most frequently and interact with directly, are those provided by local government. Hence the effects of drastic funding cuts are the most noticeable in their lives. Yet they have least control over this due to Englands huge democratic deficit at local level.
Thats the thing right... If every other shop or bar is a Greggs or Weatherspoons, none of the profits go to the local area. All the income is just siphoned off by the shareholders of these huge corporations who most likely dont even live in the same country. You are basically back in the 19th century and before that, where 90% of the people are basically serfs who own nothing while their overlords live in a sort of parallel universe. Weatherspoons has over 800 locations, Greggs more than 2000... All with employees earning minimum wage or close to it. How can any local bakery or pub compete with the sheer scale of these operations that can operate with much lower profit margins and probably get all sorts of tax benefits by their "lobbying" *ahem* efforts...
Some nice video footage Michael...Looks very much like where I live in South West France,clean streets,well dressed people,busy bars and restaurants,No homeless people begging,hardly any boarded up shops.My wife and I go out for lunch twice a week,it's not expensive and the food and wine are great.Today we went to the indoor market in Angouleme,was packed with young people drinking at the bars and people spending money on quality food items...I have forgotten how bad the UK has become....Keep the videos coming...
Belgium is expensive though because of high taxes. But, just like in Luxembourg, the wages follow the inflation rate automatically (after some months) here.
I am originally from the UK but have been happily living in Northern Belgium since 2007. I would just like to say something that might shine some light on the higher standard of living that is seen here. While everywhere in the western world has suffered some recent difficulties, some countries have weathered it better than others. In Belgium not only do our wages automatically go up with inflation many people automatically receive pay rises linked to length of service. As a bus driver for a small local family firm I received pay rises every two years. As is said in the video people need money to use shops, restaurants and bars. The pensions are also good here, meaning there are many people with a lot of free time and a desire to socialise with friends in pleasant privately run establishments. My conclusion after 17 years in Belgium? Unions are not an entirely bad thing and a system of proportional representation means that every political party has to pay some attention at least to the living standards of the little people to stay politically relevant.
Thank you Steven 😊
@@MichaelLambert1 Hi Michael, I don't know if it is of interest but I would highly recommend a visit to Mechelen/Malines if you have the chance. While Liege/Luik is a city on the up, Mechelen is somewhere that twenty years ago was completely run down but under the stewardship of it's Mayor Bart Somers, has completely turned around. Somers has won various Mayoral competitions but it would be naive to think that it would not have happened without a growing local economy. Still, an interesting place to visit with more protected buildings than Antwerp and to me at least, an example of how decline does not have to be permanent. Regards
@@stevenm7881 Thank you for the suggestion Steven - I will keep that in mind 😊
Thanks for sharing, Steven. I'm a Brit in Portugal where conditions are a little different when it comes to wages but much of what you say rings true from my memory of working in and around your part of Europe.
Belgians do complain about our pensions, though, it's only recently that a full-time minimum pension will be raised to 1500 euro/month before taxes, and we don't have much of a tradition of private pension funds, either. That's below our neighbours' pensions, sometimes even significantly. That said, home ownership is high, and has been encouraged as part retirement. We might complain about rising real estate prices, we are still rather affordable compared to our neighbours, especially the Netherlands, or the bigger French cities (you can find much cheaper housing in the French countryside, but try finding a doctor, a job or even shops...)
Good on you Micheal it's great here in Europe in fact it's bloody fantastic compared to the UK !!
My wife's home city! Another thing to add is the cost of University tuition ... €835/yr at Liege Uni. Keep up the good work, Michael.
In Dublin Uni education is free for 95% of the people of Ireland.
Only the mega wealthy pay fees as well as those with no income tax record in Ireland.
That is why you must apply for exemption.
Completely agree. Spent a year living and working in Belgium, never been better off.
You’re still welcome! Love from Belgium, EU.
Enjoyed the video Michael,looked a clean vibrant city,,,
I believe that Belgian cities like Bruges, Gent, Antwerp, Liege etc are highly under rated and well worth a short visit from the UK
And Leuven, the last pictures of the video.
I think they care - Chiswick looks good - Hounslow is awful - I'm off to holland next week (assuming I can negotiate Brexit issues - we used to allow 2 hours to get to Dover - now 4) - Holland will be immaculate
Another very interesting trip . As well as your knowledge,you can film and edit content,im impressed. Keep up the good work .
Thank you very much! 😊
This American is impressed with how charming and clean everything is. So many old historic buildings and cobblestone streets. I want to go there. Thank you for showing this.
When I lived in Tenerife i had a Belgian friend who ran a bar with his wife. He would return to Belgium every now and then to work as it helped boost his life in Tenerife as the wage was so good.
When I was a kid in the early 70's we went from North America to visit relatives in the UK after being in West Germany, Belgium , and The Netherlands. Whilst taking the ferry across the Channel my father cautioned me that we were going to a "poor country" and that people there weren't as well off as those we'd seen in Western Europe. The UK was a dirty and squalid place then in comparison to what I was used to and what I had seen but the most absurd part is how little has really changed in the intervening 50 years.
I totally agree, brings a tear to my eye! People actually voted for this-Can you believe that??
@@foolbritannia956 And Thatcher is still idolised as a Demi God by many, Murdock and her were the worst two things to happen to the U.K. since the war. Although I gather there is a problem with a statue of thatcher, no one wants it, can’t imagine why?
I watched this video the other day whilst in the bath, so didn't respond, but as it flashed up in my feed again, I thought I'd respond. I'm a brit, born in the 60's, and in the eighties I became an international truck driver. Back before the customs union, so T forms, customs at every border, carnets and T forms were a specialist subject that required experience, time and patience. The Nineties happened and life became simple, I could do a trip in half the time, in fact anyone could, so every tom dick and harry started to do international too. Around this time, most of our current politicos were just leaving uni, with degrees in art and social studies.. and without a clue how the world works, took charge. I moved to Belgium in 1994, and the quality of my life went up in leaps and bounds. The more I learned about Europe, the more I realised that the Brits had been lied to pretty much since the early eighties, about the same time that mad woman took over, (of course we knew they lied, we just didn't realise that the press did too.) I have now been in Flemish Brabant for over thirty years. I will never come back to the UK to live, my blood pressure simply couldn't handle it. Belgium is to me, the true garden of Eden. Intelligent people, civilised culture, awesome beers and food. Be welcome, Michael. Anytime.
Many thanks 😊
Leuven is a very nice town also.
What a lovely video. Thanks. I am dumbstruck to see so many people with shopping bags and not dirty rucksacks that British people have.
Thanks Christopher 😊
Few to no tattoooos , 👍👍👍
Liege looks considerably more pleasant than many a UK town centre where you find countless betting shops, scruffy takeaways, vape shops, pound shops, dodgy candy stores, the same big supermarkets selling sorry-looking post-Brexit fruit and veg, abandoned shop fronts smelling of urine and worse, rubbish everywhere, rough sleepers begging ... But but Sunak's plan is working.
Have you visited every town in UK?
Yes ?
No of-course not
So spare us the sweeping statement please
The truth is the towns that have a reputation for not having clean streets and rubbish about and dodgy barber and vape shops, oh and a nice dose of grooming ( and I don't mean pets) are towns which have the highest number of people from certain demographics and yes I know a percentage of native Brits are scumbags too, This isn't being *ist* or *ism* but a true observation.
WE DON'T WANT ANYMORE
Oh and I loathe all those shops you mention
@@salus1231 - so you’re getting better now after you’ve chosen to replace European immigrants (with a quite common cultural background, partly former allies who saved your as from my German fellows in WWII) with others from all over the world, because you now have control? No idea how these people think they’re coming to a better place if taking Windrush & Rwanda into account.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windrush_scandal
Thank you Michael, Liège is indeed on the up. North and South, East or West Belgium is a wonderful country to live in. Come back and visit us anytime. Peter...
PS: Leuven is best compared to a british universty city...
@@peg9459 Indeed, a bit like Oxford or Cambridge although that I found these two cities much prettier than Leuven…
Thanks Michael, another cracking video. 👍
Thank you for highlighting the town in Belgium Michael and thank you for all that you do. The Tories have well and truly stitched up people in the UK while pointing the finger and blaming "foreigners"
Keep up the good work that you do my friend.
Thanks John. Very much appreciated 😊
Very interesting. Enjoyed the walk, through the shopping centre. No one sat begging, No pound shops. No gangs of teenagers hanging round intimidating the shoppers.
The video's you have shown of cities in Europe do look to be on the up.
People sat outside socialising.
We certainly made the biggest mistake leaving the E.U.
I visit Bromley from time to time, you are correct in your observation, adolescents hang around the Glades centre. Friend told me that two black gangs had a pitched battle in the centre a while ago, check new shopper paper. The Apple Store in the Glades never has less than two bald or shaved head, very heavily tattooed guards at the door, often three on Saturdays it seems, Apple can afford the guards but small shops cannot. Bromley has really deteriorated from the 1950s/60s/70s, a nice market town on the fringe of London to a semi urban environment.
@@jeanjacques9980 Seems its the same in most areas of the UK....very sad 😢
@@susanmorgan3104 I don’t visit often, too depressing.
@@susanmorgan3104 Bromley Town centre used to be a lovely place to shop with quality shops, as many towns in the U.K. I remember there was a coffee shop that roasted their coffee and vented into the High Street, the aroma was wonderful. Only decent shop left is M&S, many empty shops, charity shops and I think a few betting shops towards Bromley South Station, from memory of visit. Definitely gone down market, appears now like Lewisham did 25 years ago, and now Lewisham is more third world shocked by the deterioration, only decent shop is M&S and that doesn’t look like it’s been refurbished since the shopping centre opened. I only return to U.K. occasionally to visit old friends, each visit makes me more depressed.
Liege is very nice... but i love Brugge - one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Chapeau bas. (!!!) Special Greetings from Poland - Stan 👍
Michael, you were probably more surprised at what you didn't see! Rubbish strewn everywhere and a lack of obvious destitution! 👌
I've been to Belgium and the Netherlands quite a lot and they don't seem to be in decline the way British towns are.. They invest a lot in their public spaces and as your video's showed, there's not a scrap of rubbish to be seen. I don't know if its just a cultural thing but the restaurants are always full and the town centres buzz with activity. Where I come from in the UK they don't even maintain the roundabouts and they're overgrown and unkemped. In Europe they spend money on flowers and plants in civic spaces and generally take pride in the way their towns look.. Just my own observations, how true this comparrison is more generally I don't know...
Important point about investing in public spaces - but I think this flags up a mindset difference here. Last year we had a large number of fruit trees planted in a public space, and most of them were vandalized literally within a couple of days, and we live in a decent area. Given these were quite big trees when planted it would have taken maybe two or three strong people to bend the trees enough to break. We also had a lot of new cycling infrastructure such as bike route signs installed and they suffered a similar fate. This is a mentality I will never understand, but does it mean that no matter how much we spend, the result is going to be the same?
In Belgium they don't mow the grass along the roads during spring but this is on purpose, to protect the newborn wildlife.
I've said for decades the root of all Britain's problems is land values and property prices!
AND TORY GOVERNMENTS
The class system and Tory governments including the quasi Tory government of Blair. U.K. is doomed I’m afraid.
The Tories are clearly lying, it's obvious that the quality of life is better in the EU
Shopping malls are not particularly interesting in themselves. It's clear however that the one in Liège is not only open, but thriving without any vacancies or creatively boarded up windows, with boards decorated with pictures of shopfronts like I've seen in UK videos. Potemkin shopfronts, in other words.
@@AndriyValdensius-wi8gw💯👍
@@AndriyValdensius-wi8gw"Potemkin shopfronts- - indeed! 😂
Explains all the queues at Dover on Bank Holidays etc! People can't get off the 'Septic Isle' quickly enough!!
The Tories don't lie. Who told you that, your eyes and ears?
Belgians are great neighbours. Over the centuries they have built great towns and cities. Luik isn't amongst the prettiest though.
It is on the up. Trafficwise they're on the right track with developing public transport. The emphasis on bicycle traffic could be more though. Bike lanes are still too much of a rarity.
Oh those Dutchies... Always moaning 😅. You should have cycled in Guillemins in the 80's at night. Bike lanes would have been the least of your problems... Luik has come a great way since then!
Greeting from a fellow Dutchie!😉
I agree. Bike lanes in The Netherlands are “super-de-luxe”! Groetjes uit Leuven.
@@louis-philippearnhem6959 Groeten terug🇧🇪🥂🇳🇱
Life is considerably better in Belgium!
I have lived in Belgium/NL for the last 25 years having left UK initially for 6 months, I never once felt like returning. Liege was very dirty and forlorn back then, but as you say, it is definitely on an upward trajectory, just as other post heavy industrial Wallonian cities. I live in Gent now, and when I visit my brother back in Tunbridge Wells, or go down to Plymouth, it is like stepping back 20 years. Poor infrastructure, dilapidated buildings, poor quality shops etc etc. I shall not be returning.
British infrastructure has always compared poorly to the rest of Europe.
Our roads and pavements are in a shocking state. The British political class appear to have no interest in infrastructure especially outside of London.
You've actually chosen the best of all Belgian cities, to my opinion.
Lived in Ghent for 7 years. That was great fun and whát a beautiful city it is!
The difference is obvious when comparing the French and English ends of the Eurotunnel but then 7m people decided uk was a good place compared with where they came from in eu it’s all to do with what is behind the facade
@@alextaxi2593 I have lived 36 years in the UK and now 25 years in mainland Europe. I will not be returning to live on the other side of the tunnel. The UK has slipped so far behind with infrastructure and town planning, and I haven't got enough years left to see this neglect reversed (if it ever will be). Living outside the EU is not something I wish to do, with all the benefits it gives me for work and pension.
Liege was also one of the most important centers in Europe for the manufacturing of high quality firearms.
Michael, good to see people like you who shows the EU as it is: clean, nice, value-for-money, ...
Minute 16:54 And tasty Belgian chocolate 🍫
Minute 17:16 And flowery gardens
👍
Paracetamol are crap value over there. At least six euros a packet cuz not available in supermarkets and chemists run a tacky cartel.
A few years ago my wife and i used to go regularly to Ypres for the day. Originally this was for the WW1 history, but eventually was just for lunch and the nice shops & atmosphere. It was so clear that the quality of life was so much better for the inhabitants of this small town compared with Woking our nearest town close to where we lived in Surrey. We discussed moving to Belgium at the time, but of coure work etc. was a barrier. Now of course due to Brexit we can't move to Europe, so 2nd best, moved to the West County. Now we don't go out much as the local towns here remind us of Woking...so sad what this country has become....
Excellent review as usual Michael!
Thanks James 😊
Always looking forward to your interesting videos. Regards from Germany
Ilona
Thank you very much 😊
I just came back from Poland and the streets there were extremely clean, no chewing gum or graffiti. All the shops were thriving too. Uk has become victim of it's own greed. Our shops are struggling. High streets are filthy and run down.
And why do you think High Street shops are closing?
Have you been to European towns and cities and seen how clean they are then you come back home and see the state of our in Britain. And that goes for the whole of the UK. It is a sh*t tip .
I grew up in NZ , brought up by a Londoner Father who was a serviceman in the second war and a real gentleman in spite of having been raised in poverty. We were raised to respect our towns and cities and never litter. Mum would have tanned our backsides! I was astonished when I came to the UK in the 1980s how bad this littering was , and it has never been tackled by our useless governments . No excuse for anyone to drop it. They should be hit by massive penalties which send out a serious message to the public .
Transport works, beer is cheaper & better.
Leuven is so vibrant due to it being the number 1 university town of Belgium (although this honour is equally claimed by Ghent). So Leuven has a disproportunately large young population, and very cheap and good quality services: restaurants, bars, cultural events, etc. Buying property there however is relatively speaking quite expensive, partly due to plenty of high-paying jobs in the university and high-tech spinn-offs, and partly due to the closeness and good railway link to Brussels, only 20 minutes away.
Liege certainly doesn't look bordered up like towns in the UK😲 Amazing demonstration of life in this part of Belgium. Love your walk about through and through inside and outside of the town Michael. Good on you!!! Certainly doesn't come across as depressing as over here in the UK. Excellent job MAN 🍻
Yes, it is great of Michael to do this - comparing and contrasting with our sad Tory Dreamworld Hovel - Bangladesh-on-Thames.
Thank you very much Gavin 😊
Visited the Netherlands last year. The contrast with the UK was stark. Everywhere looked cleaner and more affluent. Surprised by Liège, as it has the reputation of being a grubby, post- industrial town.
Liège isn't a beauty. Flemish and Dutch towns are lightyears ahead.
I have spent a lot of time in the Netherlands with a member of my family. There is no comparison with the UK in any aspect of good living. Without any shadow of a doubt, the British Public have been sold down the river, l can assure you that life in the Netherlands is not much better, but like doing so on a different planet. Maintaining Nationalism is not their bag their preference is to accept the current world agender and the beneficial compromises. We could learn a lot from others.
We spent about 3 months in The Netherlands last year and then visited the UK. The houses, shops and people were starkly different. Every town we visited in The Netherlands seemed vibrate, with busy shops and restaurants, and healthy people out exercising and enjoying life. We visited a lot of towns in southern England, but the line of mobility scooters outside the weatherspoons in Gosport sort of summed it up for me. Sadly it needs to get a lot worse before the British people wake up and demand better.
And yet the south of England is by far the most affluent part of the nation. My home city, Birmingham went bankrupt last year. Libraries are being closed and local taxes are going up by over 20%.
@@johngreenan732 Even then, I love Birmingham. It went to the similar range of historic problems : main manufacturing city of literally everything, then, all the industry disapeared, leaving the city and the region with a massive reconverson problem. NO city in the whole world has solved such kind of a problem in less then 30 years. Most do 50-60 years before it's thriving again. Let's never forget REAL-reality is completely different from BlaBlaBla easy pub chatter.
It would be nice if you could interview some of the locals about their lives. eg. Health and education.
Well in the French speaking part of Belgium, most people don’t speak English… Except the students (maybe).
Quite a nice place it seems.
The thing I like about the continent is how there are more indepent businessses compared to British High Streets.
Show us Antwerp!
Mr Lambert - thanks for this. The reason UK towns are not like this is not only austerity but corporate greed etc. Commercial rents are way too high, rates/council tax likewise too high, chains have killed family businesses by and large.
When I was young it was accepted that rent/mortgage should be no more than 25-33% of income. For the past 11 years my rent has been 65% not taking housing benefit into account.
Brits have been conned into thinking that property ownership & long-term debt is the be all & end all. Add to that a lack of social & rent controlled decent housing. Wealth is constantly siphoned off by banks & private landlords thus you have a large proportion of the country when disposable income is less than 10% of wages.
Lovely people too. Really pleasant memories of Brussels, Bruge and international mindset unlike parts of GB
So many simalarities and some differences. Nice shot of the Maas ( meuse). Living about 110km nort-east of liège (in another country), things are about the same here. lots of empty shop, and lots of bars and restaurants filled with people. As for the economy: we have about 2 jobs for every unemployed person over here, so business is booming. Many people around here didn't want the UK to leave the EU, and we would happely have you back.
Do you live in Venlo?
I live not too far from Liège in the Netherlands, about 35km to the northeast. I'm very familiar with the town and passed trough many times. 40 years ago the town was in a much worse shape, the E25 motorway crossed trough town on the Meuse river banks, the steel and mining industry wads still going and a very large part of the population comprised of immigrants on low wage jobs.
It was if you drove from the Netherlands right in a third world country. The council was bankrupt and needed support from the state to keep essential things going.
But the town is really on the rise now, first was the opening of the bypass of the E25 in the 1990s which removed the traffic and made the Meuse boulevards a nicer place. Then the opening of the new station designed by Calatrava, which replaced a very ugly 1950s era building. The return of the tram system to Liège which was closed in 1967 and now reopens in 2025.
The coal industry demised in the 1970s and the last bit of the steel industry was closed in 2011, the hot rolling mills in Cheratte, the blast furnaces had shut down a few years earlier.
In general many parts especially in the inner city have been beautifully renovated, some sites of the old blast furnaces are being redeveloped while one gets preserved as industrial heritage.
The town of Leuven is renowned for its Medical Faculty at the University.
I also remember Liege from 20 years ago. More homes with broken windows than inhabited places, around the river. It is a different place now.
I read the comments on your page here ... I'm living in Ghent and born there . Belgium in general is a great country to live in ! I'm 55 and never had a bad encounter in my life ! Studied in Brussels and Antwerp . If you aim to focus on bad things ,sure you will see them . But honestly we can't complain . Thank you for this render of liège !
See, Belgium is considered a 'funny' country by most English. They don't consider it important. Their ignorance and jingoistic mindset doesn't allow them to appreciate that the people of 'little' Belgium' might have a better life than themselves. As a German that has been to your country many times, i find that attitude incomprehensible. Granted, some Germans hold the same opinion, unfortunately. But most Germans appreciate the country and the shared history. And I don't mean the history that starts 1914. We go back much much longer...They don't know, nor do many of us Germans. I for my part enjoy coming to Belgium every single time, greetings from Freiburg❤🍻😘
Nice to hear that you were visiting Belgium. Maye its is also an idea tot visite my country..the Netherlands...and than esspecialy not Amsterdam or Rotterdam..but Maastricht, Eindhoven, Nijmegen..very nice cities to visit and cities who benefit from the open boarders in Europe..
À friend of mine Gaiadig spent a year working in Brussels and she said it was the best city she had spent time in. To work in a boulangerie it's best if you can speak three languages.
Yes, in The Netherlands the better high schools teach 4 languages: Dutch, English, French and German, courses that students are required to follow for at least a couple of years. To have this base knowledge of a language really allows you to pick it up much faster later in life should you ever need to.
Ah, but I bet the Belgian primeminister doesn't make an appearance at a soup kitchen (for a photo opportunity) to serve a homeless person and pretend to have great interest in their welfare by querying if they worked in the finance sector? And entertaining the homeless person with great tales of how they used to work in finance - many finance roles actually! I bet the Belgian primeminister could learn a few things from Tory Britain???
You mean how to be a fully-flegded PR stooge for the mutually self-agrandising, institutionalised financial parasites who feedi the lavish life-styles of the top 5% of shareholding elite ?
The same elite that told, and continue to tell, everybody to get multiple shots of the poorly engineered gene interference therapy to boost the populations immunity and the elite's share dividends. With the long-term consequence that "Unexplained" excess deaths are through the roof in the UK.
Not to worry, the PR stooge made a huge killng on insider trading on a certain big pharma shares,... allegedly.
Shame Shaw Taylor's not around to do "Police Five" anymore ... Today's UK has a lot of super-thieves.!
When I used to live in Belgium, the main square in Leuven (your last photo) was the place to be on New Year's Eve as the clock struck 12:00.
It has a great Kerstmarkt too.
I have lived in Belgium for quite some time now and even though my family are still in the U.K. I would never move back there. I just visit every year.